The subject had much attention from Alberico Gentili, both in professional practice, when he was an advocate of Spanish claims in English prize courts, and in his posthumous work, Advocationis Hispanicae Libri Duo,[1] in which there is a defence of the claims of sovereignty asserted by English kings over the British seas; and the arguments are noteworthy as coming from a learned Italian, Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, and the supplanter of Grotius as the reputed Founder of International Law. But there are three writers, British by birth, whose works make a special appeal to students of contemporary British thought on this subject. One of them is a Scotsman, and two are Englishmen.
As early as 1590 William Welwod published The Sea-Law of Scotland—a book now extremely rare.[2] To this work there
- ↑ Published in 1615, two years after his death. Gentili's book De Iure Belli was published in 1588.
- ↑ There is a copy of the book in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and in the University Library, Cambridge. There is no copy in the British Museum, none in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and none—I have ascertained—in the library of any of the Scottish Universities, although Welwod was Professor of Civil Law at St. Andrews. Mr. Fulton (The Sovereignty of the Sea, 352 n.) has come upon a MS. copy in the State Papers, Dom., Jas. I, ccviii, No. xvi, entitled 'The Sea Law of Scotland, shortly gathered and plainly dressed for the ready use of all seafaring men. Dedicated to James VI. of Scotland by William Welvod. At Edinborough, A° 1590, by Robert Walgrave.' For the particulars that follow I am indebted to Mr. F, Madan, Bodleian Library, Oxford. The title of the work as published is: The Sea-Law | of Scotland | Shortly gathered | and plainly dressit for | the reddy use of all sea- | fairing men. | Psal. 107. ve. 23. 24. 31. | They that go down to the Sea in schips, | and occupie by the great waters. | They see the workes of the Lorde, and | his wonders in the deepe, &c. | Let them therefore confesse before the | Lord his loving kindnes, and his wonder- | ful workes before the sonnes of men. | At Edinburgh | Imprinted By | Robert Waldegrave | An. Dom. 1590. [In an ornamental border 4¾ x 2710.] The size is small 8vo. The author's name is given at the end of the dedicatory epistle, which ends: Be your
